


Can I kiss you?

by Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, it's so fluffy I'm gonna die, seriously, solangelo, they are too cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 01:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3363404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire/pseuds/Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will was determined to gain Nico’s trust, to be allowed into his personal space. Therefore, he started to make small touches whenever he was near him. [...] He never pressed the matter if Nico moved away, but bubbled over with joy when he didn’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> did anyone get the Despicable me reference in the tags? no? anyway, if you don't already have a dentist appointment soon, get one, cuz dis is tooth rotting fluffiness. hope you enjoy :3

“Hey, Nico where are you goin’?” Will called after his friend.

Nico had suddenly left his table during dinner, and was now striding off at a quick pace towards the forest, not looking back at Will. He caught up with Nico and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Wait–”

“Don’t touch me!” Nico snapped at him, still not turning around, still not stopping.

The words made something stab painfully in Will’s stomach. Why was Nico suddenly acting like this? Will didn’t understand anything. He had finally been allowed into Nico’s personal space after months of earning the boy’s trust, and now he sounded like they were back to the beginning.

What had Will done to get Nico this upset? They hadn’t even been sitting at the same table. Will ran after him again to walk by his side.

“Nico, what are you doing?”

“I’m leaving, Solace”, the boy grumbled.

Will felt his stomach turn uneasily.

“What? What do you mean you’re leaving?”

He sounded just as desperate as he felt. Nico couldn’t leave. Not now. Why would he leave now?

“Because it was a mistake to stay. I don’t belong here, everybody knows it”.

“That’s not true”.

He tried to grab Nico’s hand to stop him from reaching the shadows of the trees, but the boy yanked himself free.

“Let go of me!” Nico finally turned around to face him as he spoke, and Will could almost feel the anger and frustration rolling off him in waves of shadows. Nico just looked at him with a glare that could have killed a lesser man, his eyes darker than ever before, before he walked away and reached the shadows.

Just like that, he was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

After three weeks, Will was finally out of Drachmas to sacrifice to Iris in his desperation to contact Nico. His Iris-messages didn’t get through, which meant that Nico was probably in the underworld or something.

The only thing that had helped him was visiting Reyna in the roman camp, where he had found out why Nico had left. He knew that Nico probably trusted Reyna more than anyone, and he was right.

“He’s gone?”

Will nodded after telling her what had happened. Reyna leaned back in her seat and looked out of the window. The worry in her expression was one of the rare emotions Will had ever seen her reveal in front of him.

“I knew something was wrong”, she said. “I’ve tried to Iris-message him but I didn’t get through”.

“Me neither”.

Will was never quite sure how to act around Reyna, as she was radiating authority in an entirely different way than anyone else he’d met. He decided just to ask his question.

“I was wondering if maybe you knew why he left?”

Reyna looked at him, but Will could not read her expression.

“Perhaps”, she said.

Will waited for her to elaborate.

“He told me that he didn’t belong there. That he could hear what people were saying behind his back, and that they sometimes didn’t bother to hide it at all. He kept saying that maybe he should leave like people wanted him to, but I didn’t think he would, at least not without telling me”.

Will nodded slowly. “Right”.

He thought back to the day Nico had left, and remembered seeing the Stoll brothers nudging his shoulder as they walked past, saying something Will was too far away to hear. Nico had been looking rather tense after that (not that Will had been staring at him. Nuh-uh), but Will hadn’t seen what happened right before Nico suddenly got up and left.

It all made sense, though.

Even though Nico had friends at camp, Will could see that he was sensitive to comments. He had heard a few of them himself, but he never thought they would affect his friend so much that he would actually leave.

“Thanks, Reyna. You’ll tell me if you hear from him, right?”

“Of course. I trust you’ll do the same?”

Will gave her a faint smile and nodded before he walked out, and returned to Camp Half-blood.

***

Only a few days later, there was a disturbance in the camp’s current peace.

“Will!”

Will turned his attention to whoever was calling on him to see Jason running towards him with a dark figure in his arms.

"He just appeared out of the shadows!" Jason panted.

Will’s heart stopped for a second when he saw the state the son of Hades was in. The boy had squeezed his eyes shut and was clutching his side, dark red blood covering his pale hands in terrible contrast. His black hair was glued to his forehead with sweat, his face was stained with dirt, cuts and bruises, and his clothes were torn and littered with blood and dirt.

Will acted fast.

“Jason, get him inside the infirmary, quick!”

Jason did as he was told, and Will ran after him to find his brother.

“Austin!”

“Yeah?”

“Drop whatever you’re doing, I need help!”.

Austin shoved the stack of medical supplies he was carrying into the hands of a passing camper, and ran after Will who had already reached the bed where Jason had put Nico. He thanked Jason before shoving him aside to make space.

Nico’s hands were still covering his left side and he was taking short, quick breaths.

“Austin, nectar and ambrosia, now please!”

His brother was already on his way, and returned quickly with the medicine. Will grabbed a bottle of nectar and forced the liquid down Nico’s throat. He coughed but it went down, making his breathing a bit steadier.

“Could you get some bandages? And Jason, give him some ambrosia, please”.

They both obliged while Will turned his attention to Nico’s hands.

“Nico, I need to remove your hands to see the wound, ok?”

Of course, Nico was in no shape to answer, but he didn’t resist when Will removed his hands. A gaping wound was revealed, and judging by the look and smell of it, this was from a spike on a manticore’s tail. Trails of poison was still visible on the edges.

Will knew that the poison wouldn’t kill Nico, just cause him extreme pain, but that didn’t mean the wound itself was not fatal.

“Jason, that’s enough. We don’t want to turn him to ashes”, Will said, and Jason put down the rest of the ambrosia.

Austin had returned with the bandages and something to clean the wound with. Will’s hands worked fast, and sweat was trickling down his forehead while he concentrated. Just like most of his siblings, he could tell a person’s heart rate and breathing just by touching them, so he didn’t need to ask Austin to check if Nico was stable.

A piercing scream left Nico’s lips as Will started cleaning the wound, and he felt like the sound was stabbing his heart. Nico squirmed away on instinct, but Austin held him still so that Will could work.

“Sorry”, he whispered, and continued the treatment.

He instructed Jason to give him some more nectar, which luckily quieted the screams.

It didn’t take long before Will had patched him up, and it seemed like Nico was fine. As fine as he could be expected to be. When the pain seemed to have eased he quickly fell asleep, and Will dropped down in the chair next to his bed, absolutely exhausted.

Now that Nico was in no immediate danger of dying, Will could feel the relief that poured through his veins when he actually realized that Nico was back. He made a mental note to tell Reyna soon, and then drifted off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Will woke with a start when someone shook his shoulder. Austin was looking down at him, smirking.

“Morning, sleeping beauty”.

Will was confused and groggy.

“Huh? S’it mornin’ already?”

He started to get to his feet, but Austin just laughed at him.

“No, I’m just messing with you, Will. It’s dinner, you want to come?”

“Oh”.

He looked around until his eyes rested on Nico, who was still fast asleep.

“No thanks. I’ll stay here”.

His brother shrugged and disappeared outside. Will yawned, still sleepy from his unusual mid-day nap. He looked at Nico. He looked better now that he was no longer covered in blood, but the olive color that had started to return to his skin a few weeks ago was gone. Will wondered where he had been, and how he had managed to get on the wrong side with a manticore. Not that it was probably difficult to get in a fight with one, but you did have to find it first, and they were not that common.

Will sighed, leaning forward on Nico’s bed. He stayed there through the night, the sound of the boy’s steady breathing lulling him to sleep.

 

When Will came back from breakfast the next morning, he found Nico sitting in his bed, awake. Will beamed at him.

“Hey, Neeks. How you feeling?”

“Ok, I guess”.

His voice was hoarse. Will set down the plate of food he had brought.

“Got you breakfast”.

“Thanks”.

Nico took the sandwich, and devoured it quickly. The sight made Will smile, for some reason. He got up to find some nectar and handed it to Nico.

“Drink this too”.

Will had to stop him from drowning the whole bottle in one gulp.

“Whoa! Take it easy, Nico, I don’t want you to crumple to ashes after all I did to keep you in one living piece”.

“Right. Sorry”, Nico muttered.

He looked slightly embarrassed, but he went easy on the nectar.

“What?”

Will didn’t realize he was staring, and he felt his face heat up a little.

“You came back”. It was more a statement than a question, but Will waited for an answer.

“Yeah. I, uh… I guess I missed it here. Some things, at least”.

Will grinned.

“Did you miss me?”

Dam, he loved making Nico blush.

“Uh, yeah. I mean, you’re my friend, right?”

Will couldn’t stop grinning at the pink color in Nico’s cheeks.

“I am”. He paused. “And I’ve missed you”.

He reached out to take Nico’s pale hand, but stopped. He remembered how he had not wanted Will to touch him when he left, and wondered if he was still like that. Will was not sure Nico would allow him, so he asked.

“Is this okay?”

It came out only a bit louder than a whisper when he took Nico’s cold fingers. It took a second before the boy nodded, and Will felt a smile of relief and happiness widen on his own face.

He took Nico’s hand in both of his, as if trying to warm it between them.

“You should get some rest, you’re still exhausted”.

Without any reply, Nico lay down again, and to Will’s joy he didn’t try to pull his hand away. He could feel Nico’s breathing get deep and more even after only seconds, and he knew the boy was asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Nico had requested some of the books from his cabin to read, as he was obviously getting bored in the infirmary when Will was not there. Will was visiting as much as he could, but unfortunately, he had other things to do as well.

Therefore, he went to get Nico some more books to read, as he had already plowed through three novels in two days.

When he got back to the infirmary, Will went to the storage room at first to get fresh bandages. However, there were somebody else in there when he pushed the door open.

Nico, only wearing the infirmary’s white cotton pants, was reaching up for something on one of the shelves. He didn’t seem to have much luck though, as he was too short to reach to the top.

Will leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms.

“Nico, what do you think you’re doing?”

Nico jumped about a foot into the air and scrambled back from the shelf, whirling around to see who had seemingly given him a heart attack. Will hoped he had not.

“Gods Will!” Nico put a hand over his heart and bent down to steady his breathing. “Don’t do that!”

Will smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry. But seriously, what are you doing in here? You’re supposed to be in bed”.

Nico turned to the shelf again.

“I was just getting a band aid. Got a paper cut, it won’t stop bleeding”.

Will’s gaze went to the boy’s hands, and saw that his right index finger was bleeding. He sighed, walked over to Nico, and reached for the Band-Aids while standing behind him. Will still had a few inches on him.

While standing so close to him, he suddenly became _very_ aware of the fact that Nico was shirtless. He had to resist the urge to follow the scars on his pale back with his fingertips, and took Nico’s hand instead, leading him out of the storage room.

“Will, I can do it on my own. It’s just a paper cut”, Nico protested.

“Yeah, but as your doctor, I won’t let you”.

He made Nico sit down on his bed again, and then pulled the bloody hand closer to examine it.

“It’s ironic. After all you’ve been through, after all the times I’ve patched up your critical wounds, a little paper cut won’t stop bleeding”.

Will glanced up at Nico, smiling while he wiped the blood and put the little Band-Aid over the cut. The corners of Nico’s mouth were almost twisting up in the smile Will would trade anything to see more often.

“Yeah, it is”.

Will held on to his hand a little longer than he had to, before he went to find the bandages he had forgotten.

 

“Alright. Let’s have a look at this”.

Will carefully removed the bandages covering the no longer poisoned wound in Nico’s side. It was healing slowly, but nonetheless healing. Will examined it.

“Does it still hurt?”

“Not really”.

When he put pressure on the wound after disinfecting it, Nico inhaled sharply. The action made Will freeze for a moment and look at him.

“Maybe a little?”

“Maybe”.

He kept working with the bandage, trying not to trigger any pain. Meanwhile, Nico’s soft skin and perfect abs were giving Will a hard time staying professional and focused, as he longed after trailing the lines on the son of Hades’ bare chest and stomach.

Unfortunately, he knew that Nico only allowed him to touch his waist or chest because he had to. Any contact like that without a medical reason would not be appreciated, Will knew that.

 _Yet_.


	5. Chapter 5

Will was determined to gain Nico’s trust, to be allowed into his personal space. Therefore, he started to make small touches whenever he was near him.

He trailed a faint scar on Nico’s forearm with his finger while the boy was reading.

With the excuse of examining a cut on his forehead, Will brushed away some of the silky black hair that always fell into his eyes.

When he allowed Nico to eat together with the other campers, Will would sit close enough to him for their knees to touch.

He never pressed the matter if Nico moved away, but bubbled over with joy when he didn’t.

***

They were sitting next to each other on the hospital bed while Nico tried to explain to Will how Mythomagic worked. One of Nico’s hands supported his weight while he showed Will some of the cards with the other.

“…while Hestia isn’t the most powerful card, she’s more important than she seems, because…”

Will found it hard to follow the explanation as he was busy looking at Nico’s face when the boy was looking at the cards. There was a spark in his eyes that Will simply adored too much to look away from if he didn’t have to. He only looked down at the cards when Nico turned to check if he was paying attention.

Another disturbing factor was that Nico’s hand was delightfully close to Will’s. While Nico talked about the different combinations you could use monsters in, Will found the back of his hand with his fingers.

Nico paused for a second, but then continued without moving his hand away.

With a grin spreading across his face, Will let the tips of his fingers draw patterns on Nico’s hand. The action made a tingling sensation spread through his body, and he continued casually up the boy’s wrist. Will stroked the underside of his arm gently, but this caused Nico to remove it from Will’s fingers.

Disappointed, Will let his hand fall and paid attention to what Nico was saying. The only problem was that he had stopped talking, and was just staring at the cards in front of him.

Will prayed he had not crossed the line too far.

“I’m sorry, I…”

“No”, Nico interrupted his apology. “Don’t be. I-I’m just not used to it”.

He was still looking down on the cards, avoiding Will’s gaze.

“Nico, look at me”.

He looked up slowly, finally meeting will’s eyes.

“If…” Will began, already dreading the answer to his coming request. “If you want me to stop, please say it. Because if you do, I won’t try to touch you anymore”.

Nico’s brown eyes were still looking at him, and he shook his head. The answer was barely more than a whisper.

“I don’t”.

A wave of relief washed over Will, and he smiled.

“Then don’t worry. You’ll get used to it”.

Nico gave a shy smile before he looked away, too adorable for his own good. Will inched a bit closer, looking down at the Mythomagic cards.

“What were you saying about the power items again?”

This made Nico pick up where he left, and Will tried his best to pay attention.


	6. Chapter 6

“You know any constellations?” Will asked the boy beside him.

Because Nico obviously hated the campfire gatherings after dinner, Will had dragged him up to Half-blood Hill instead. They were currently sitting next to each other on the warm ground, looking at the stars revealing themselves in the sky.

“Not really. Orion is the only one”.

Will shot him a surprised look.

“You only know one constellation? How?”

Nico shrugged.

“No one’s taught me. Bianca only showed me Orion, I’m not sure if she knew anyone else either”.

“It’s about time you learn them, then”.

Will turned his attention to the sky, and tried to locate some of the pictures he knew.

“You see that one that looks like a wagon over there?”

He pointed, and Nico nodded.

“That’s Big Dipper. It’s not really a constellation itself, it’s part of Ursa Major, the great bear. The four stars underneath in one of the legs, you see?”

Nico knitted his eyebrows, but nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I think so. It doesn’t look much like a bear, though”.

Will laughed.

“Then you should see Sagittarius. It’s supposed to be a Centaur but it looks more like a mutated spider to me”.

He pointed out the picture in the sky, and Nico actually laughed when he saw it. Will felt like that angelic sound could bring peace to the world and make flowers grow in the desert.

“Yeah, it kinda does”, Nico stated, still looking at the sky.

Will kept showing him the constellations he knew, pointing out Hercules, Lupus, Scorpius, Gemini and Draco. At some point while talking, he had laced his fingers together with Nico’s, and Nico had let him.

“How come you know so much about stars?” Nico asked him. “I mean, you’re a son of Apollo, god of the sun”.

Will turned to look at him.

“Good question. I don’t know”.

He really didn’t, because Nico’s question made a lot of sense.

“My mom taught me, but I don’t know how she knew so much about it. Even though I like sunshine, I can like stars too, can’t I?”

There was a smile on Nico’s lips.

“Of course you can”.

It was funny how Nico’s hand felt a little bit warmer at night than it usually did. Maybe it was because it was colder outside now.

“Can I do this?”

Not sure how Nico would react, Will let go of his fingers and put his hand around the boy’s waist instead. To his pleasant surprise, Nico inched closer at the touch, their shoulders barely brushing against each other.

“Yes”.

Will could not hold back the grin on his face as he continued his astrology lesson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a bit short, sorry


	7. Chapter 7

Will was still sitting at Nico’s table in the dining hall, with the excuse of making sure he ate enough. Even though Nico was healthy enough to stay in his own cabin, Will was still his doctor. The boy seemed to be in a good mood today, for some reason. He was smiling down at his eggs.

“Someone’s happy today?” Will was curious. “Why?”

Nico just shrugged.

“Don’t know, actually. What, I’m not allowed to be?”

“You should smile like that every day, and I swear the world would spin faster”, Will grinned, causing Nico to blush bright red.

When the two of them were almost finished with their breakfast, Connor and Travis Stoll walked past their table, talking just loud enough for them to hear.

“How long are you staying this time, di Angelo?” Connor muttered as he passed, and Nico froze.

The smile on his face disappeared instantly, replaced by a hard and pained expression. He stared down at his plate, fork still in midair.

Will felt a sudden anger boiling up inside him like thick, hot lava, and he stood up quickly. He reached Connor before he sat down at the Hermes table, and Will grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shoved him up against the wall.

“You should watch your damn mouth if you don’t want me to stitch it together!” he snarled at Connor, holding him on eye level.

“Have you even realized it’s your fault he almost got killed? He’s saved all of our lives several times, and this is how you repay him?”

Will was yelling at him although the dining hall had gone completely quiet.

“If you, or your brother, or _anyone_ else has _anything_ to say against Nico staying, I suggest you keep it to yourself!”

With this, Will let go of him before Chiron got there to pull him away, and strode off to his cabin.

He slammed the door shut behind him and dropped down on his bed. He was too angry to stay with the others, and he was not sure how Nico reacted to the little show. Will had not dared to meet his eyes when he walked away, afraid of what he would see in them.

He concentrated on steadying his heartbeat, and his anger soon ebbed away. There was a knock on the door.

“Will?”

It was Nico, and Will got up to let the boy in. He stood outside the door, looking worried.

“Hey”.

“Hey, Neeks”.

He stepped aside, and Nico followed inside the Apollo cabin.

“Look, I’m sorry for, uh, you know…”

“I’m not angry, Will”, Nico said. “I appreciate it. What you did”.

“So you don’t think I was too rough with him?” Will asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Nah. He deserved it”.

When he saw Nico smile, Will couldn’t help but do so too.

“Right. Thanks”.

“Come on. You have a job to do in the infirmary, you know”, Nico reminded him, and they walked up to the Big House together.

 

Nico followed Will around, helping him. He didn’t have anything else to do as Will had forbidden him to do anything physically challenging with his still healing wound and he had read all of his books, plus Will’s.

“Neeks, can you get some ambrosia?”

“Sure”.

Will was stitching together a sword cut on a son of Ares’ arm. He had just cut off the thread when a loud crash echoed through the entire infirmary, followed by a series of swear words.

“What the–”

Will rushed off to the storage room where he suspected the sound having come from, and was met by a sight that would have been amusing if he was not worried that Nico was hurt. The son of Hades was lying in a pile of medical supplies that were usually located on the shelves: Bandages, nectar, ambrosia and boxes filled with all the other stuff.

“If you laugh,” Nico began, struggling to get up from his medical nest, “I will send skeletons to your cabin at night”.

He found it hard not to, and had to hide a small outburst in a cough. Nico scowled at him. Will reached out a hand to help him up, and Nico accepted it while grumbling something Will didn’t catch.

“Uh, Nico?”

Once again, he had to contain his laughter (he didn’t doubt the threats were real).

“What?”

“You got a little nectar in your face”.

A bottle must have cracked or something in Nico’s hair, because a little river of nectar ran down his forehead. This combined with Nico’s glare was a priceless sight, and Will doubled over, laughing.

“I’m sorry…” he managed to stutter between laughs.

Eventually, he gathered himself enough to find a paper towel. Still smirking, he was about to dry the medicine off Nico’s face. Nico tried to grab the paper towel from him, but Will held it out of his reach.

“Nuh-uh. Just hold still, little demon”.

Nico scowled, but held his head still, and Will held his chin gently with one hand while wiping the nectar off with the other. The death glare didn’t leave Nico’s face, and Will sighed.

“I’m not gonna tell anyone, if that’s why you’re looking at me like you wanna kill me”.

He was still holding Nico’s face, and was now trying to get some of the liquid out of his hair. The boy didn’t answer, but his eyes didn’t hold the immediate threat of a skeleton attack anymore.

When he was done, Will let his fingers slide off Nico’s chin with a light brush while smiling at him.

“There. Now, I think that Ares child wants some ambrosia before we clean up this place”.

Nico smiled sheepishly, a light blush in his cheeks.

“Right”.


	8. Chapter 8

“Number three from the top”, Will said, and Nico put the boxes of bandages on the said shelf.

As he stretched up, his shirt lifted just enough to reveal a very distracting line of skin above his black jeans. Nico noticed him staring, and Will quickly looked away, feeling a blush creep up his cheeks.

“Uh, Will?”

He looked up at Nico.

“I’m too short”.

When Nico had put the boxes on top of each other, he was too short to fit the last ones on top. Will chuckled at his cuteness.

“Really?” He walked over to help his poor adorable friend. “Take the boxes”.

Nico did, and Will put his hands on both sides of his waist.

“Will what are you– woah!”

Will lifted him up enough for Nico to put the boxes back on the shelf.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Just put the boxes back, I gotcha”.

Nico did so quickly, and Will put him down again.

“That was not funny”, Nico said, but his eyes spoke otherwise.

“Yes it was. Your eyes can’t lie to me”.

“Idiot”.

Will chuckled.

“If you say so”.

They were standing close in the small space between the shelves, and the feeling of the skin around Nico’s waist still lingered on Will’s fingers. He spoke before Nico could act on the idea of moving away.

“Nico?” he asked, suddenly extremely nervous.

“Mm?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Nico’s brown eyes were looking at him. He nodded, and Will leaned in slowly to kiss his lips.

The feeling was nothing near what he had imagined. It was delightfully intoxicating, and Will found that he had to concentrate not to take it too far too soon. Nico’s lips were soft and sweet and warm, and it suited Will perfectly.

His hands found Nico’s face, gently caressing the soft skin, then tangling themselves in his long hair. The other boy’s hands found the back of Will’s neck and sent a shiver of delight down his spine.

Will didn’t want to, but he broke apart, searching Nico’s face for any negative reaction. There was none, and they were both grinning.

“How was it?”

Will realized he was panting lightly as he asked.

“Amazing”.

“Can I do it again?”

“I won’t stop you”.

Already missing the sweet taste of Nico’s lips, Will kissed him again, forgetting that anything but the two of them even existed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry for the short chapters, but how was it? i love comments


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